Developmental language disorder/ specific language impairment. Would like to hear experiences and advise.

[Lucecita]

Hi There,

I have a 2yr old DD. We took her to SALT services and they have told us that it looks like she has a developmental language disorder and not just a delay, like everyone was telling me. I have been worried sick since April but everyone told me I was being crazy. I wish I was...However my partner is a bit In denial and downplaying everything, thinking that with a bit of therapy she will catch up. The issue is that no one knows because she is really young, but most children with these profiles need years of therapy and support. On the bright side, we have spotted it at a critical age and early intervention is key for more optimal outcomes, so I’m really glad I did not take the “wait and see” approach.

We are starting therapy next week privately because the NHS in Camden has a waiting list of 4 months. The therapy in tailored for her but is based on PRT, which is usually used with children with ASD or significant communication/language delays. She is socially motivated and very engaged with everyone, but needs help to start using language to communicate. We will then combine it with the SALT sessions that we’ll get via NHS.

I would be really grateful if you could share your experiences with me and if there is any hope for me to think she’ll manage to overcome her challenges and be mainstreamed without support or little support by the time she reaches primary school.

Thanks!

Those are all great signs! Well done to you all. Our DD was similar at home, she still is tbh and lots of DLD kids get misdiagnosed with behaviour/ASD type issues. But they just get frustrated/annoyed, as would anyone. And at your DD's age frustrations are normal. She will get there and that is amazing progress.

@malmontar thanks a lot for your support, it does really help me a lot emotionally!

@Lucecita glad to hear you're getting on so well, I'm way down south so bluesky not an option for us although I did hear they'd be starting some online stuff. If you get a mo could you give me any pointers. Feel like I've got a bit of a wall with my 3 yo and all the advise I've been given just doesn't seem to be working -he says loads of words but doesn't communicate 😖

@Coco2891 I’m not sure what else to tell you. Blue sky will do Skype consultations and travel. It can get costly so I gave you the contact of another provider, who is in your area and are quite affordable. Contact them for an assessment, they won’t charge for that. They will tell you if they can help your son through PRT. Please call them! I’ll send you the link again www.gocarer.com.
Please call them and let us know what they say!

Forgot to mention I have called them and they no longer offer services down here . Nevermind

It’s a shame! My advice is to email/call Blue Sky and ask for advice! They might be able to help you by going to you once for assessment and then train you. They have a training day for parents in London later this month. I found this pdf online just now files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED336901.pdf You can start reading this to have s better understanding of the strategies you can take to communicate and play with your son.

Wow great I'll print that off at work today! Thanks

Hi Lucecita,

I’ve been following your little girls story and wondered how things have been with BlueSky. I’m also from Camden and waiting on speech therapy but was told they cannot tell me how long it will be before they see my boy. Has your girl taken to the BlueSky programme. I’ve booked in an appointment and am very nervous but excited that he can finally get some help.

We were seen by the team in Hunter St after 6 weeks of calling for an assessment. On the assessment they said waiting list to start therapy was around 3 months. So they drop the bomb and tell you to wait with some vague advice on strategies.
Thank god I already had my plan B with BD.
My daughter has taken therapy really well, but we still have along journey ahead of us. But I must say she is saying more words almost every day and is trying to communicate all the time. For example she fell down last week and when we picked her up she told us: nose! Nose! Nose! To let us know that she had hurt her nose, which was completely red! My heart melted! Two months ago, I thought it would take ages for us to reach that moment!
PM me and I can tell you q bit more in detail

I mean BS (Blue Sky) not BD!

Hi there,

Just wanted to give a bit of an update on my DD. As you know she has been doing therapy at BS since last September, twice a week. She is doing great and has been discharged from the NHS after a course of therapy with them and a second assessment. They told us that seeing how she has developed it was not a language disorder but a delay. She is a little chatterbox who speaks, shares, and even tells us things that have happened at nursery.

We keep and will keep doing therapy with BS because we still feel she needs support in some areas and we want also to reinforce the hard work BS have been doing with her. They have helped us so much and I am sure we would not be where we if we had not found them.

Still we will always be vigilant on her language. Once you've had these type of issues you cannot be relaxed about this. Now we have to figure out how to support her learning of both our mother tongues....

Thanks everyone for your support in his thread!

Hi @Lucecita , if you’re still about could you please give an update on your DD. Experiencing something similar, thank you 😊

Hi,

My daughter is doing great, and is actually growing up perfectly trilingual, and even learning a forth language. She loves to speak in public, very eloquent for her age, and doing above average on literacy. She just needed a bit of support when she was around 2years old, for about 6 months. We simplified things at home and extended SLT to every aspect of how we communicated with her. Sounds complicated but it is not, just adopting a different approach, more fun and play based.

I hope your little one is doing great, and gets the support they need. Happy to respond to specific questions you might have.

Sorry I have just seen your reply! That’s fantastic, such a good update. Delighted your daughter is doing well.

Was it just the inability to speak/structure sentences that the issue with your daughter was? I have some ASD concerns, lack of attention being a major one. Did you experience anything like that or any non verbal communication difficulties?

@BlinkingLight forgot to tag you!